Arsenal star has ‘a little way to go’ before making injury return

Arsenal midfielder Santi Cazorla has opened up on his injury nightmare and says he has a ‘little way to go’ before he can finally make his first team return.

Cazorla was initially ruled out of action after suffering knee ligament damage during our 1-1 draw at Norwich City in late November.

The Spanish international made good progress with his recovery but a proposed comeback in March was shelved after he aggravated a long-standing Achilles injury in training.

That injury has taken a further six weeks to heal but with Cazorla now back in full training, the midfielder can finally start to think about making a return to the playing pitch – which is something he is ‘dying’ to do.

Santi told Arsenal.com that he still has to work hard to build up his fitness before he’ll be able to make his comeback but he’s hoping to return as soon as possible as it’s been a hugely frustrating time for him on the sidelines.

“I’m happy to be nearing a return to the team. Obviously it’s been difficult for me to be out for a long period of time.

“I still have a little way to go until I’m back to my best and can play with the team. I’m training with them now so I can return as soon as possible.

“I hate not playing. I need the daily routine of football so when I can’t do that I don’t enjoy it.

“I also had another problem on top of my knee injury, which was the original issue. During the recovery phase I started feeling some pain in my Achilles and that was something nobody was expecting.

“We’d planned for me to come back after four months and my goal was to play in the second leg against Barcelona.

“Everything was going well and my recovery was even ahead of schedule, but sadly it all went wrong on my second day running outside with the fitness coach. I started to feel a really sharp pain in my Achilles and that’s why it’s been five months.

“It’s been tough because it was an unexpected blow and that always makes it harder to take. It was something even worse I had to take in but these things happen in football and I hope I can recover as quickly as possible because I’m dying to play again.”

Cazorla will continue to work on his fitness in training but with no under-21’s fixture’s until our play off with Blackburn on May 3rd, Wenger could arrange a couple of behind-closed-doors friendlies at London Colney to give the midfielder some playing time.

As long as he doesn’t suffer any setbacks, Cazorla could then be in contention for our final two Premier League games against Manchester City and Aston Villa next month.